


A Tale of Two Instas

by thebrightestbird



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: All Dacre Montgomery's Fault, Fluff, M/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 10:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12057492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebrightestbird/pseuds/thebrightestbird
Summary: Jason taps the story again, and nope, it wasn’t some odd trick of his eyes. That is definitely his friend and fellow Power Ranger seductively blowing cigar smoke while leaning shirtless on a ledge somewhere.





	A Tale of Two Instas

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Dacre's Insta shenanigans. Switched the roles though because Zack would be the one to act like Dacre, while Jason would be more like Ludi.

Jason usually checks Instagram while eating his cereal as part of his morning ritual on Saturday before he heads off to detention. He’s no Insta celebrity, but his account has a couple hundred followers. The other Rangers have accounts too, all varying in popularity and styles.

He notices that Zack posted a story sometime during the night, but Jason decides to scroll through the latest posts before checking it out.

Kim and Trini have a few posts from their girls’ night in. Close-ups of hands clasped, a shot of the TV showing them watching _Wonder Woman_ for the twelfth time, one-too-many posts from Trini of Kim wearing Pink-branded shorts (because Kim, out of all of them, has fully embraced her Ranger color and has worked it into her daily aesthetic), and embarrassing shots of each asleep and fully drooling. Jason, of course, taps the heart on all of them.

Billy doesn’t post a lot of things, but when he does, the content is always something to bring a smile to whoever sees it. Videos are Billy’s best medium because his frenetic energy and bright spirit can really be experienced. He only posted one thing during the night – a Boomerang of his latest science project emitting sparks and Billy’s adorable, wide-eyed “whoa” reaction. The caption says, “Got a LITuation!!! Did NOT predict this happening, but science is all about discovery ;)” Jason happily taps the heart.

Jason keeps scrolling, but there aren’t many other accounts he really cares about. He notices that Zack hasn’t posted anything new besides his Insta story, and Jason would definitely notice because Zack posts in threes to keep the rows of his account page thematically consistent. He’s that serious about his Insta aesthetic. Zack uses stories for more candid stuff, so Jason taps home to get back to the top of his feed to click the circle with the cute picture of Zack wearing an old-timey aviator cap.

And Jason almost drops his phone into his cereal because his eyes are attacked by a shirtless Zack smoking a cigar.

He manages to keep a grip on his phone and carelessly tosses his spoon into the milk so he can use both hands to essentially cradle the phone, as if holding it in such a way would keep away any possible interruptions and allow him to focus better and absorb what the hell he just saw.

Jason taps the story again, and nope, it wasn’t some odd trick of his eyes. That is definitely his friend and fellow Power Ranger seductively blowing cigar smoke while leaning shirtless on a ledge somewhere.

What roof is that?

Who’s even filming him?!

And, oh God, there’s another part to the story with him only wearing a towel, and fuck you, Zack Taylor, because Jason needs to get to detention and doesn’t have time to jerk off.

Jason sends out a silent prayer that Zack decided to skip detention this morning. He, of course, is not that lucky. He gets to school and walks downstairs to the detention room to find Zack sitting at his usual desk, head propped up by a hand and barely keeping his eyes open. An unwanted assumption floats through Jason’s head that the man must be worn out by whoever was recording and taking his Insta posts last night. Jason squeezes his eyes shut and takes in a deep breath to clear him of the thought.

Zack stops dozing as soon as Jason begins his approach. “Morning, Red,” he greets. “How was your night?”

“Apparently not as good as yours,” Jason says before he can stop himself.

Zack raises an eyebrow.

Jason winces at his own snarkiness but pushes past it. “We need to talk after detention.”

“Just you and me? Not the others?”

Jason doesn’t trust his mouth, so he nods.

Zack does a quick glance at the Rangers, who are probably staring at them, but Jason doesn’t have the nerve to look too. “Sure thing, boss man,” he finally says, sounding equal parts exasperated and intrigued.

Jason nods again in acknowledgment and turns away to take his seat.

||

The Rangers gather for a bit after detention to make plans to hang later at Billy’s house. Usually, they’d just stick together for the rest of the Saturday, but Jason’s determined to have a long-overdue talk with Zack. The others must sense it’s something big because they don’t question the change in routine. Trini, however, mouths “What did you do?” at Zack, who just shrugs in answer.

When they say their goodbyes and leave Zack and Jason in the school parking lot, Zack grabs Jason’s hand to get his attention. “What’s on your mind, Red?”

Jason’s had the morning to decompress from the shock of seeing the seductive Instagram posts, so when Zack looks at him with concern, the urge to tear into him over it has significantly diminished. “Let’s walk around the track,” he says, simply.

Zack doesn’t let go of his hand as they reach the track. They’ve been doing this more and more over the last couple of months. Holding hands, casual touching, lingering looks, outright cuddling during movie nights. Zack had even kissed his cheek when saying goodnight after a particularly raucous bonfire that might have involved crappy beer and even crappier singing of songs from Disney films.

They’ve been building up to something.

Jason stops walking suddenly and lets go of Zack’s hand. “Zack, what the hell are you doing posting stories like that on Instagram?”

Zack looks confused for a second, his brain catching up to what exactly Jason’s talking about. His face shifts suddenly, mouth opening in a silent “oh.” “Yeah, well, I wasn’t naked or anything,” he tries to reason.

“You were wearing a towel and sunglasses at one point. And what was with that?! I get you came out of the shower, but why bother putting on sunglasses for a photo indoors?”

“Um, yeah …”

Jason doesn’t give him a chance to respond because now the floodgates of his mouth have burst open. “And cigar smoking? You know they’re a thousand times worse than cigarettes, right?”

“Jason, I’m not getting cancer from the one cigar I smoked to look hot for an Insta story.”

“You don’t know that!”

“Yeah, dude, I do. Now, what is this really about? I’ve posted shit like this before and never got scolded by you for it.”

Jason’s cheeks burn with the memory of the last story Zack posted that left nothing to the imagination. “That was different.”

Zack huffs. “How? If anything, it was way more _risqué_.” He says the last word sarcastically, rolling his eyes as well.

He’s not wrong. Zack was only wearing black boxer-briefs. Yeah, Jason definitely remembers that post. “Zack, I know you’re 18 and can post whatever mostly unclothed photo you’re comfortable with. It’s your body, I get that. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

Zack crosses his arms. “Like you’re any different, boss man. You probably post more shirtless photos than I do.”

“What?”

“Oh, please. Just because they’re shots of you working out or playing football and just because you caption them with some spiritual mantra or random ancient wisdom you googled doesn’t make them any more sophisticated or less thotty.”

“Fuck you! They’re motivational.”

“Yeah, I know what shirtless photos of you motivate me to do.” Zack makes a jerk-off motion, as if his meaning hadn’t been clear.

Jason takes in a calming breath and ignores the urge to punch the other man. Despite the angry defense, Zack’s got a point that deserves to be taken seriously. If Jason’s going to be criticizing his social media behavior, he needs to face his own too.

Honestly, Jason’s comfortable with what he posts. There’s some vanity involved. He’s mature enough to admit that. But pairing the different motivational words with photos of himself from all those days and nights he spent training and perfecting his body and his athletic skills helps Jason work through his self-confidence issues, his worries about his life and what’s in his future.

For Zack, the sexier stuff he posts are just another way for him to live fearlessly and without shame. The man’s been so confined by this town and his mother’s illness, he needs the extra outlet to free himself.

Jason takes Zack’s hand again. “You get the reasons I post what I post, right?”

The touch calms Zack down. “Yeah, man, I get you. But I thought you got me too.”

“I do. Honestly, I do. I’m not really mad at you for showing off how hot you are on Instagram.”

That gets the smirk from Zack that Jason wanted. “Then what’s with the drama?”

Jason swallows hard and looks at their joined hands. “Who was taking the pictures of you last night?”

Zack sucks in a breath. “Oh, fuck! I’m an idiot.”

Jason looks at him questioningly.

“Jason, he was just a friend. I mean, we had a thing last year, but it’s just heavy flirting now. He’s on break from college and invited me to hang with him at his house yesterday. We didn’t do anything, I swear.”

“I don’t mean to be possessive or any of that other bullshit. You can do whatever you want with anyone you want, Zack. I don’t have any claim to you.”

“That’s not true, dude, and you know it.”

Jason squints in confusion.

“This thing happening between us, it’s important.” Zack moves closer, grasping Jason’s one hand with both of his. “You’re really special to me, Jason.”

Jason bites his lip because the smile on his face from Zack’s words is too embarrassingly dopey.

Zack has a smile on his face too, but it turns solemn suddenly. “In all seriousness, I want you to know that there is no one else in this world, honestly, _no one else_ , Jason, I’d rather have,” he stops and takes a breath, “taking sexy pictures of my fine-as-hell ass for Instagram.”

Jason groans.

“And I can’t wait to post stories of us together barely dressed.”

“Not happening, Zack!”

“Oh, it so is, Red. Imagine it. We are gonna break Instagram.”

Jason kisses Zack suddenly to shut him up.

-end-


End file.
